Blink and I'm gone
by MyAmaranthGrin
Summary: Sequel of Beautiful dream or cruel reality. "Do you still have hope for me?"   "You tortured me for 72 hours in your Tsukuyomi and toyed with what little sanity i had left. It's not hope i have left for you. It's pure hatred." SasuXSaku
1. Meet and Greet

**A/N: This is the sequel of "Beautiful dream or cruel reality". Of course you don't have to read the prequel to understand this one because they can both work as separate stories. Though I will give you a short summary of what happens in the prequel so you have a better time understanding this story. **

**Summary of the prequel: Sakura goes on a mission to deliver a scroll to Kumogakure but ends up being attacked by Sasuke Uchiha who she thinks to be dead. She is then taken to sound disguised as Sasuke's slave. Beaten up badly Sasuke brings a boy to heal her. After being healed Sakura falls asleep and when she wakes up she understands it was all just a dream. Walking towards the Hokage tower she bumps into someone that suddenly gives that dream a perfect sense. **

**Yeah, not very short but whatever :P Read and enjoy, yours truly MyAmaranthGrin formerly known as ByakuganLove. **

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Chapter 1: Meet and Greet**

Crouching on one of the branches, the figure clad only in black, stared at the target ahead emotionlessly. The target, which was a young cloud missing nin who wandered off to the fire country border, sat on the ground from exhaustion and took deep, ragged breaths. Haruno Sakura shifted in her position ever so slightly. She decided to attack since her target had been completely exhausted and his chakra reserves were almost depleted. Twirling the kunai in her hand, she managed to formulate a plan. The said kunai zoomed past the target and jabbed itself in the ground near his right thigh. Almost immediately his eyes widened in realization and he stood up, taking his fighting stance.

From where she was hiding in the tree branches she immediately found the mistake in his stance and she couldn't help but to shake her head and tsk at the inexperienced cloud Nin. _'If that's his fighting stance, I could beat him only with Tai jutsu and I'm not that good at it which says something about how wrong he is._' Actually she wasn't that bad in tai jutsu. In fact she was actually strong with her melee attacks what with her chakra infused punches and what not. She smirked and decided to make her appearance.

"Who's out there?" The boy asked almost out of breath, holding the handle of his still sheathed katana. A gasp pushed past his lips as a kunai grazed the skin on his neck. Instinctively he grabbed the handle of the katana tighter and was ready to draw it out when Sakura pressed the kunai even further into his neck, droplets of blood trickling down.

"Drop it" Sakura's feminine voice spoke into his ear. She was damn well tired of this guy. He had been running away from her for 3 days. Luckily for the boy, Sakura was well known for her patience while on a mission otherwise with her short temper this guy would have been dead within seconds.

"What do you want?" The boy asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out. Now walk and don't even think about escaping because I'll punch your brains out." To prove that she was not joking as she started gathering chakra in her hand and smirked when she saw the guy gulp down in fear. Normally she wasn't this snappy and cranky but 3 days without a sleep can do that to you. The guy sighed and walked calmly in front of her. It somewhat surprised Sakura but then again she too would be afraid of herself and that chakra infused punch had she been in the same scenario. Grumbling lowly under her breath, Sakura continued walking ahead through the forest and towards the Konoha walls. They weren't too far from Konoha because that cloud-nin bastard made sure to give her a long run before she was able to catch him. Luckily for her he wasn't giving her a hard time with running away and stuff. Though with Sakura's snappy behavior he would be haunted down, decapitated and buried and all of that in a total of…about 1 minute. Yes, that's how tired, angry and cranky Sakura had been. When she was finally able to see the big concrete walls of Konohagakure, she released the breath she didn't know she was holding and hurried to get inside quicker.

"State your purpose." Someone's fierce voice said from above. Sakura looked up at the big watching tower that was next to the big gate, her hand coming up to her forehead effectively blocking the sun.

"Haruno Sakura, arriving from a mission."

"Ah Sakura." The Chunin said in recognition as he disappeared from the watching tower and reappeared in front of Sakura. "I didn't recognize you." Kotetsu said and flashed her a genuine smile. He gave her a once over before turning his gaze towards the guy standing next to Sakura. "Who is he?" He pointed his thumb at him as if to point out who was the person he was talking about. Though when his eyes landed on the long horizontal scratch carved into his cloud hitai-ate, some things became clearer to him.

"That, I'm afraid, I still don't know." Really, she never caught his name. "What's your name boy?" She addressed the brown haired cloud nin that seemed to space off for a second.

"Shin Yamaguchi" He stated simply while Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. Somehow the name Yamaguchi seemed familiar. She gasped when she remembered.

"From the Yamaguchi family? As in the second son of Raiden Yamaguchi?" The boy nodded again. He seemed around Sakura's age. Strands of his shaggy brown hair were falling down his face as his auburn eyes stared at the two shinobi in amusement with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face. Had he not been the son of Raiden Yamaguchi she would have probably beaten him to a bloody pulp. But Sakura was smarter than that. So instead she pretended as if the realization hadn't dawned upon her. She recovered quickly and smirked indifferently.

"Well, it must suck to be the second born." She smirked again when she noticed his on smirk fading away from his face as he stared at her, his mouth gaping open. "Come on, let's go. I have other things to do." She moved ahead, slapping her hand against Kotetsu's as he gave her a high 5 for the way she handled the brat.

"See you around Sakura" The chunin said as he disappeared in a bunch of leaves that scattered around the Konoha gates. Sakura nodded her head in recognition and walked into the village as calmly as possible with Shin at her tail.

"How old are you?" Sakura suddenly asked Shin. They had a little while walking towards the Hokage tower so why not spend the time in talking. Shin seemed a bit absentminded. He raised his head slowly and an almost inaudible "Hm?" escaped his lips.

"I asked how old are you?" Sakura repeated.

"Oh, I'll be 16 in a month." He looked back at the ground. "And you?"

"Me? I'll be 17 on March 28" After that the conversation-if it's possible to call it that-died down and Sakura didn't really bother to find a new topic to talk to Shin. They proceeded to walk side by side until they reached the Hokage tower.

"Here we are." Sakura said as they neared the door where she knew that her sensei would be. Shin nodded absentmindedly and stepped aside for Sakura to come closer to the door. The pink haired girl knocked on the wooden door and opened it when she heard a grunt of affirmation. Of course to anyone else's ears that grunt might have sounded like anything _but _a sign of affirmation but Sakura could easily distinguish her grunts seeing as she knew her sensei like she knew the back of her hand.

"Tsunade-sensei, the mission was successful." Sakura said with a small smile, as she entered the room and approached the desk. The Hokage, sitting behind her desk blankly staring at a pile of documents, smiled at Sakura and clasped her hands in contentment. Of course she knew her student would execute the mission perfectly; there was no doubt about it.

"I knew you would do a great job." Tsunade leaned a bit to the side so she could look at the brown haired boy that looked strangely disinterested in the small talk. "Running away again, Shin?" She asked sternly but smiled nevertheless when she saw the boy pout. She shook her head at his antics and turned her attention towards Sakura. "I have another mission for you." A groan escaped Sakura's mouth for which she received a glare from her sensei. "It's not as boring as this one had been. Plus you'll have company with you."

Sakura's eyes lit up like jewels as she straightened her shoulders and grinned at Tsunade. "I can take Naruto-kun with me?" Yes, Naruto could be stubborn, loud, troublesome and what not but Sakura hated going on longer missions alone and besides, Naruto made an awesome fighting partner, if it should ever come to a fight.

"Well that's not who I had in mind. We have a guest from Kumogakure. I would like you to be his host while he's staying at our village. You are going to be accompanying him to Kumogakure for he was sent to retrieve Shin Yamaguchi and bring him back home."

Sakura crossed her arms and frowned. "If he was sent to retrieve this boy then why was it necessary for me to chase him across the country for 3 straight days?"

"Sakura" Tsunade began with a sigh. "As the Hokage of the leaf village it is my duty to decide whether or not to help allied villages. As you can see I have decided to help our friends in need. However, I have my ways of doing things and I do not have to explain them to you" She said sternly at the still frowning Sakura. "Thus I won't need to explain to you why I sent you instead of letting the cloud-nins do their job. Are we settled on this?"

Sakura stared back at her sensei rather defiantly. Yes, the lady Hokage was not obligated to tell her everything but still, she couldn't understand why it was necessary for her to do a simple and stupid mission like that when she could be assisting some other village with her medical jutsu for example. When Sakura didn't answer, the lady Hokage banged her hand on the wooden desk and asked her again.

"I said are we settled on this Sakura?" Tsunade said in a dangerous tone that made Shin shiver.

"Yes, we are" Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Now then" Tsunade spoke in a calmer way, visibly relaxed. "I would like you to meet our guest Higoshi Tamotsu." Tsunade pointed to a door on her far left and as if on cue the door opened. Sakura rather sluggishly and disinterestedly looked at the door but her eyes widened upon seeing who the guest actually was. There, in all his indifference, at the threshold of the door stood none other than the boy from her dream and the boy she ran into couple of days ago. His shaggy blond hair was swaying in the light breeze that strolled in from the open window and his blue eyes that reminded her of Naruto's watched her with amusement.

"Hello. You must be Haruno Sakura." He said as he walked towards her and extended his hand for her to shake. Sakura, who was a bit dazed, didn't take it at first but then when the short second of shock passed she extended her own hand and shook his outstretched one. "Nice to meet you." He said with a smile that seemed a bit too forced to Sakura.

"Y-yeah, likewise." Sakura said a bit unsure. She still couldn't grasp the fact that this was the same boy from her dream. It's not like she was having premonitions or something cause that would be too stupid and surreal, she reckoned. However, she didn't exclude the possibility of her dream actually being real. But then again, as she thought furthermore into the matter, it wouldn't have been possible seeing as Sasuke was dead. There was another possibility and she bet her money on that one. She thought that probably she saw this boy around town but didn't recall of such meeting actually occurring so she dreamt about the boy subconsciously and then mistook the whole thing. Yeah, that had to be it.

"Well, why don't you give him a tour around town. You still have time for your mission." Tsunade said and brought Sakura from her reverie.

"Oh, when are we leaving exactly?"

"Tomorrow morning, so you still have time to give him a tour." Tsunade smiled as she cast her gaze downwards and started scribbling something on a piece of paper. "You can go now" She shooed them with her free hand. Just as Shin made a move to move out the door, She pointed her long manicure finger towards him and said "Not you. You're staying here with me." Without even raising her gaze. The boy sighed loudly and sat in one of the chairs.

"Well then, we will be taking our leave now Sensei. We will be ready tomorrow morning for the mission." Sakura bowed respectively and stepped out of Tsunade's office with Tamotsu at tail. Even though she came at terms with her sanity and she settled on the explanation that the dream she had was only an emanation of her consciousness, it still felt unnerving having Tamotsu near her. '_It was just a freaking dream Sakura._' She nodded in agreement and continued walking out of the Hokage tower. Once they were in the broad of daylight she turned towards Tamotsu and smiled uneasily.

"Well, where would you like to go?" She tilted her head to the side and massaged her tense shoulders with her hand. The mission was an absolute drag but it did wear her off, especially since she hadn't had a decent sleep in 3 days.

"I think it's better if we didn't go anywhere at all." Sakura gave him a confused look. "You seem too tired to do anything, anyway" As if on cue, Sakura raised her other hand and stifled a yawn. "Go get some sleep Sakura."

"What are you talking about? I'm fine." She smiled reassuringly. "Just tell me where do you want to go and I'll take you."

"I've been here for couple of days, I can go around town on my own. Go get some sleep." When Sakura was about to protest he stopped her and continued. "Well, if you're not well rested for tomorrow how do you expect to fight if an unexpected encounter with rogue nins happens?" Sakura seemed to contemplate things and settled in for a nod.

"Alright, guess you're right. I'll see you tomorrow morning around 8 o'clock at Konoha's gates and don't be late!" With that said, Sakura turned on her heel and walked away.

Tamotsu smirked evilly as he stared at Sakura's retreating back. "Oh, don't worry Sakura. I'll be on time."

* * *

Thumping her foot on the concrete, Sakura stood in front of the gates of Konoha and waited for Tamotsu to come. '_Where is that fool? I specifically told him not to be late._' She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed. She grew angrier as the minutes passed by and Tamotsu was still nowhere to be seen.

"He's still not here?" Kotetsu asked as he jumped down from the watching tower and landed beside Sakura who shook her head no. "I don't know why, but there's something fishy about that guy."

"Yeah, I'll say. He looks at you as though her can look through you. And what's with that arrogance of his?" Izumo said as he appeared on the other side of Sakura. The said girl looked at both of them who stared ahead and waited for Tamotsu to appear.

"Funny thing, I feel the same way. As if there's more to him that what meets the eye. Something bad." She turned to looked at both men beside her. "And to think I have to travel for around 4 days with him."

"Just…be careful around that guy. Ok? I don't want a repeat of what happened couple of years ago." The fell silent after remembering what happened years ago. Sakura had gone on a mission but was injured badly while she was coming home and if Kotetsu and Izumo hadn't found her she wouldn't have been alive. Since that day when they saved her, the three of them became friends. And even though they were both older than her, their strange friendship still continued to exist as if age didn't matter. And it didn't really matter, cause Sakura was rather mature for her own age.

"Nothing of the sort will happen. Now I have some tricks up my sleeves. If he tries anything I will punch him with my chakra infused fist and he'll be gone. CHA!" She pumped in the air with her hand causing both males to chuckle. Kotetsu grabbed her hand and slowly pushed it down.

"Alright kiddo, don't get too full of yourself." He said as he continued to chuckle when Sakura pouted. "Seriously now, where is that creep anyway?" Kotetsu continued to look at the path for any sign of Tamotsu.

"He was supposed to be here half an hour ago. I hate being late." She really did hate going to missions later than planned. It gave her a strange feeling of paranoia and she couldn't concentrate on the task at hand.

Izumo, noticing her distress draped an arm over her shoulders. "Don't worry, he'll be here. He was supposed to report to the Hokage first, so maybe there's a problem with paperwork. You know how Tsunade gets, when it comes to papers." Sakura looked at him hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess that's it." Couple of minutes had passed and finally Tamotsu appeared with Shin at his tail, looking at Sakura apologetically.

"I am _so _sorry for being late. But Tsunade had some trouble with our paperwork and we couldn't leave without it." Sakura fixed him with a glare but her eyes soon softened.

"Alright, alright. You're here now so that means that we can go." Sakura turned towards the two boys beside her. "I'll see you guys in a week." She informed and hugged the two chunin. "Well bye."

Kotetsu put his hand on her head and ruffled her pink hair. "Take care kiddo. And don't let that guy do anything to you or I'll have to come over there and kick both of your asses. Alright?" Sakura nodded.

"Alright." She waved at the two boys and walked out of Konoha's gates with Tamotsu and Shin carefully following behind her. Sakura strapped her backpack to her shoulder and jumped on a tree before hopping off on other tree branches.

The journey towards the border of the fire country had been silent. None of the shinobi had bothered to start a conversation and neither did the pink haired kunoichi. They didn't even have what to talk about, so as long as the silence enveloped them, they were all happy.

However, the time came to break the silence and Sakura was not too happy about it. "We'll continue by foot from here on. We should be able to remain inconspicuous for a while." The two cloud nins nodded in understanding and they descended on the dirty trail of the forest.

Sakura did the same and sighed exasperatedly. They had been hopping off tree branches for quite some time and it seemed to have worn her off. She did a mental note to practice more, since she was out shape. And of course traveling with the cloud nins that unnerved her with their presence didn't help the matter at all. When she cast a look at both shinobi looked just as lost in thought as she was. So she averted her gaze to the road and continued staring ahead. Walking through the forest of the fire country made her think about her genin days. All of the missions they had to do and all the fun she got to have with Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and …Sasuke. As she thought about Sasuke her heart constricted in her chest painfully and she almost lost her footing as an image of the raven haired boy came to her mind. It felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her and it took all of her power to gulp down the lump that had settled in her throat.

It had been a year since they had received new that Sasuke Uchiha was dead and Sakura still couldn't come to terms with that. She was still grieving over the young Uchiha. So many sleepless nights she spent wandering around the village, visiting the old places where Team 7 would go. So many memories flooded her mind, it seemed as though their weight would crush her and force her to the ground. But she kept going and she kept swallowing those lumps in her throat because she knew that no matter what, Sasuke would not come back. Sasuke was dead and she had to accept that. However, couple of stray tears fell down her cheeks. She raised her hand, wiped those traitors off of her face and continued her journey with the two cloud nins.

* * *

"There's a storm coming. I think we should go into town and stay in for the night." Tamotsu said after a whole day of walking.

Sakura plopped on the ground and nodded meekly at the blond haired boy. She was beyond tired but quite frankly she had no idea why. Yes, they had walked for a whole day without stopping to rest but she had been through worse.

The pink haired kunoichi looked over to the two shinobi that sat next to her. Tamotsu stared at her strangely while Shin was busy with re-wrapping the bandages on his legs.

"What?" She asked him when the intensity of the stare became scary. It was creeping her out.

"Oh nothing. I was just…lost in thought." He said as he averted his gaze and settled on staring at Shin struggle with his bandages. Shaking his head in disapproval, he got up and helped Shin with the bandages.

"Creep" Sakura muttered under her breath low enough so Shin and Tamotsu didn't hear a thing. With a tired sigh, Sakura rose from her spot on the ground and dusted her clothes off. "Well, let's get moving cause I'm tired and the storm is closing in." The two boys nodded and got up as well.

Luckily for them, the nearest town was 5 minutes away and the nearest hotel was only 10 minutes away. The walk towards the hotel was eerily quiet. Yes, ever since they left Konoha they had been quiet, exchanging few words only when necessary but at the moment it seemed awkwardly quiet. With a shrug, Sakura decided to let it go and continued walking towards the hotel that was suddenly in their line of vision.

The hotel itself didn't look half bad. It seemed nice actually. The glass double doors led to the tastefully decorated reception room where a kind old lady sat behind the wooden desk.

"Hello. We would like to get a room." Sakura said as she approached the desk. The old lady looked up from the newspaper she had been reading moments prior to the arrival of the guests and smiled kindly.

"Well hello, Welcome to the Nagoya Hotel. Unfortunately, there's only one room available and it's a double bed room."

"Well, I guess that will be alright." Tamotsu said, cutting Sakura off who in turn sent him a glare before averting her gaze to the old lady and fixing her with a smile.

"Alright then. Here is your key. Up the stairs, second door on the left." The three shinobi nodded at the old lady and headed upstairs towards their room.

Dragging her feet lazily, Sakura tailed behind the two cloud nins. She just wished for a nice, hot bath and a warm cozy bed that would inevitably invite her to a nice, relaxing sleep. '_Stupid storm. We're going to lose time because of it._' Sakura thought as she entered the room and threw herself on one of the beds. '_But I can't say it's not worth it, when the bed seems this inviting._'

"I'll take a shower." Shin said and looked over at Tamotsu, before nodding in silent agreement and entered the bathroom.

"So, what's up?" Tamotsu said as he casually leaned on the wall and smirked at Sakura, who propped herself on her elbows to get a better look at him.

"What was with that nod, Shin gave you?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Just a simple thought." He grinned this time, but then the smile on his face faltered as he began choking. His eyes bulged out and he fell to the floor. The medic in Sakura immediately kicked in as she ran over to Tamotsu to see what the problem was. People don't start choking all of a sudden.

"Tamotsu, what's the matter?" The said boy then began gasping for breath, his hands scratching at his own throat as if the air would return to his lungs if he scratched his throat out. Just as Sakura was about to gather chakra in her hand and examine him, Tamotsu stopped and smirked at her evilly.

"Now Shin." Sakura only had a short moment of shock. Tamotsu was choking one second and then he was smirking at her the next? Was he really kidding with her?

"What the-" She stopped in mid sentence as she felt a hand clamp around her mouth and kunai being pressed to her throat. Tamotsu's evil smirk spread across his face as he taunted Sakura with mischief sparkling in his blue eyes. Sakura's own eyes widened as the realization dawned upon her. Tamotsu and Shin were traitors? What was Tsunade thinking when she sent her on the mission with these two without knowing who they actually were?

"Aren't you an interesting one, Cherry blossom? Orochimaru-sama would be pleased to have you as an asset to his army." And with that, the dark veil of unconsciousness fell on her as she collapsed on the white carpet of the room.

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**Well that was the first chapter of the sequel. Tell me what did you think? Read and Review! **

**Love, MyAmaranthGrin**


	2. I have no master

**Chapter 2: I have no master**

_Previously: __"Aren't you an interesting one, Cherry blossom? Orochimaru-sama would be pleased to have you as an asset to his army." And with that, the dark veil of unconsciousness fell on her as she collapsed on the white carpet of the room._

Sakura woke up with a pounding headache. She kept her eyes closed even though she was fully awake. As she laid there on the bed she made a move to raise her hand and rub her eyes but she found it impossible. After feeling the restraints on her hands, her eyes flew open and the memories of what had happened earlier had rushed to her head. '_That stupid, mother fucking idiot! I'm gonna kill him. Ugh, I'm gonna kill them both_' Sakura thought angrily as she inspected her bound hands. A smirk appeared on her face '_Tch, amateurs._' She thought as she gathered a little chakra in her hands and slashed the ropes in two. She stood up from the bed and dusted her clothes off. The anger boiled inside her and her chakra flared up dangerously which immediately brought Tamotsu and Shin into the room. She fixed them both with a glare and got into a defensive stance.

"Well, you're finally awake" Tamotsu's eyes fell to the slashed ropes that were long forgotten on the floor of the room, a frown forming on his face. "I see we have underestimated you." Then he turned towards Shin and sent him a glare. "Fine then, we won't be underestimating you this time." Both Tamotsu and Shin got into the same defensive stance.

"Why? Just tell me why?" Sakura asked as she reached for a couple of kunai. "My village trusted you."

Tamotsu huffed "Yeah, your pathetic village trusted us…with the best medical kunoichi. You know you're going to fit in just fine." He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and watched Sakura's lips curl up in a snarl.

"I am not going to Orochimaru's!" Sakura yelled and lunged herself at Tamotsu. He blocked her kunai in time, but her other hand swung at him and punched him in the face. He pushed the kunoichi away from him and swore loudly as he spit blood from his busted lip. While Tamotsu was taking time to recover, Shin did a couple of hand signs and started spinning. "_Cloud style front beheading_" Tamotsu smirked. He knew Sakura wouldn't be able to escape that. Normally while using this jutsu, Shin decapitates his opponent almost instantly but Tamotsu knew that the boy wasn't as stupid as to decapitate their target which is supposed to be delivered alive.

There was a short second of Shin's spinning and suddenly it all stopped. A dark cloak of dust had settled in and Tamotsu couldn't see a thing but he certainly hoped that Shin had knocked the pink haired girl out and that they can head back to the base. However his hope was soon crushed as the dust cleared and he could see the scene unraveling before him. Sakura was panting hard with her hand around Shin's neck, the latter seemingly unconscious.

"I said I am not going to Orochimaru's!" She yelled and threw the limp body of Shin at the nearest wall. Tamotsu growled at her and lunged himself but while in mid air he disappeared. "Where are you dammit?" She growled in frustration as she searched around for Tamotsu.

She felt that her chakra was almost depleted and she knew that she couldn't stand against Tamotsu for much longer. Stopping Shin's attack really took its toll on her. Tamotsu was a strong opponent, granted but had she not been tired from her previous mission, with almost no chakra left and knocked out she would probably pummel his sorry ass into the ground.

Suddenly Tamotsu appeared out of nowhere and delivered a blow to her ribcage. She fell to the ground and hit the end of the bed. She hit her head on the bed so hard that she could swear she suffered a concussion. With a loud groan and a shake of her head she stood up and took a defensive stance. However her vision was slightly blurred and she could hear ringing in her ears. She stared blankly around her searching for Tamotsu but she couldn't really see anything. Then another blow came but this one was delivered in the face. She staggered a bit but didn't lose her footing and raised her head again.

"What's wrong cherry blossom? Feeling tired already?" Tamotsu said as he watched the pink haired kunoichi stagger and try to stay in her defense stance but was failing miserably. Then another blow to her face came and she just couldn't stay upright. She fell to the ground but still continued trying to get up and fight. Her vision was still foggy and she could almost make out no shape at all. It was all a big blur. Sakura shook her head in order to see clearer but to no avail. As she was feebly trying to get up, strong hands vowed themselves in her pink hair.

"What was that? I think you were saying that you're not going to Orochimaru's" Tamotsu chuckled darkly when he pulled on her hair and earned himself a yelp from the pink haired kunoichi.

"I. Am. Not. Going!" She said through her clenched teeth and managed to trip Tamotsu. She cut his leg with her one of her chakra scalpels which resulted in him letting go of her hair. Sakura used her chance to trip him and straddle him. "You stupid, sick bastard!" She yelled in frustration and started punching the daylights out of the blond boy. An indescribable anger boiled inside of her, the raw need of someone to be blamed burned in the pit of her stomach, vicious growls emitting out of her throat. In the midst of her rage, Sakura didn't notice Shin who had woken up and walked over to her, catching her wrists in his firm hands, carefully removing her from Tamotsu.

"Sakura-san please, obey or he will have to hurt you." Shin said softly in her ear but Sakura did not heed him. She continued to wriggle and writhe in his grasp, her teeth clenched to the point where she could hear them cracking. "Sakura-san, _please_" Shin pleaded.

What was this guy thinking? That Sakura would just stand by and obey them just because of a little pain? Hell no. Even though she could barely see a thing and her hands were restricted by Shin, she would not back down. She would not go to Orochimaru even if it meant that she would die on the spot.

"When hell freezes over!"

Tamotsu stood up and walked over to her with a sick sadistic smirk plastered on his face, an evil glint his eyes. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and advanced at Sakura. "Didn't you hear? It just did." He said and knocked her out again.

* * *

What seemed like hours later, Sakura woke up to find herself being thrown over Shin's shoulder. At first she couldn't remember a thing about what had happened previously-just like the first time they had knocked her out- and she couldn't quite understand what she was doing on Shin's shoulders. Her head started pounding as the memories came rushing back to her. She growled lowly and fought against the restraints that had her hands tied in front of her. The irrational and rather foolish part of her wanted to murder the person that was carrying her but the more rational and sane part told her that was nothing that she could actually do. Seeing as she was restrained with no way of escaping or fighting back and her chakra was totally drained. She scolded herself for allowing to be in this predicament.

"Tamotsu, she is awake." Shin stated as he noticed Sakura writhing. He felt really bad for Sakura because she seemed like a nice girl and she reminded him so much of his sister. He felt as though Tamotsu went over the top when he was fighting her. Even though she was a kunoichi and she put a pretty darn good fight with that little chakra left, it still didn't feel right to hit her like that.

Tamotsu continued hopping off the trees ahead of them but Sakura could practically _feel _the smirk in his voice. "How are feeling Sakura-_chan?_" He stressed the suffix so much, Sakura was going to puke at how misused it was. That suffix was supposed to be used as a term of affection towards someone you know rather familiarly and that bastard misused it.

"Not that it's any of your business but I'm rather uncomfortable." As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt Shin shift her body to what he reckoned to be a more comfortable position for her. At least Sakura knew that Shin had at least a little comprehension about the predicament they had forcefully put her in. "So help me understand, what the FUCK you two want with me?"

Tamotsu spared her a glance over his shoulder and smirked "Cherry blossom don't worry, you'll find out soon. _Very soon._" And that alone was enough to make Sakura shudder. The way he had said it, with a double meaning and the tone of voice it was delivered in raised the hair on the back of her neck.

"And my mission- believe me I would do the air quotes but my hands are _busy._" She said sarcastically "What about that? Did you tamper with it?"

"Well of course." Tamotsu said and continued hopping off of branches, rushing towards their destination. "You see, Shin had tried to abandon his village couple of times but each time his father would sent someone to retrieve him. However, with a little help of a certain someone" Sakura had a wild guess who that certain someone was. "He managed to finally abandon that village. Luckily for us your pathetic village" Sakura growled at that comment but Tamotsu ignored it and continued. "Wasn't informed that Shin was already a missing nin so it was easy to fake a letter and send it to your Hokage requesting shinobi assistance. We had planned on abducting you while you were in pursuit but that proved difficult since I had to remain in your village by the request of your Hokage. Aren't we just smart?" The plan _was_ ingenious but Sakura had a doubt in her mind that a fool such as Tamotsu would come up with something like that. Maybe Shin, but no way in hell was it Tamotsu. Deciding to ignore his last smug comment, Sakura began to put the pieces together.

"So that's why Shin had come almost willingly." She wondered out loud. Now that she thought of it, Shin didn't even put up a fight and from she had seen in the hotel, his abilities were more than surprising.

"That is correct." Tamotsu said with a sort of finality to his voice, meaning that the conversation was over. Which was fine with Sakura, cause if he said one more word, she would be tempted to _try _to break his neck. Key word; try because she didn't have a chance at it. And as she kept telling herself that she felt even more enraged by how helpless she was.

After that the only sounds that could be heard were the rustling of the leaves as they swayed on the light breeze and the sounds of two pairs of sandals scrapping at the wood. As Sakura stared blankly over Shin's shoulder she noticed her vision becoming foggy again and then clearing. She narrowed her eyes and saw little specks and blotches of white and black. She shook her head as if to clear her vision but no such thing happened and for the third time Sakura slipped into unconsciousness.

Upon noticing that Sakura's body hung limply over his broad shoulder, Shin hopped to the ground and landed with a thud. Another thud resonated near Shin which he identified immediately as his partner Tamotsu.

"I think we should stop for a while, we've been at it since midnight. Plus there is something wrong with the kunoichi. I think she suffered a concussion. It's not normal for her to fall in and out of unconsciousness."

"Yes, I can see that but there's nothing that we can do to help her. I think it would be best if we hurry to the hideout. Besides Kabuto will know what to do."

Shin spared Tamotsu an incredulous look, but nevertheless hoisted the limp body of the pink haired kunoichi over his shoulder. "Fine, whatever you say" He muttered and hopped off into their general location; Orochimaru's hideout.

Tamotsu shook his head before he too hopped on the tree. Stupid Shin had to go all mooshy and sympathize with the kunoichi. Why couldn't that boy be more like Tamotsu? He was strong, indifferent and could care less what anybody around him felt. Shin on the other hand had this strange ability to empathize with people and it unnerved Tamotsu. Mainly because it made Shin weaker, thus automatically making him weaker too. It irked Tamotsu because if there was anything in this world that Tamotsu hated, it was that; feeling weak. That's why he even left his village. Weak, was one word Tamotsu would use for his village.

'Fuck, I've been thinking about this too much' Tamotsu thought as he felt his head pulsating from all the thinking he had done. So with a sigh and a careful glance in Shin's direction, he picked up the pace.

* * *

After many, many hours of traveling, the three shinobi finally arrived at Orochimaru's hideout. Tamotsu smirked as he saw the entrance to the underground lair he had come to call home. He nodded at the two sound nins that were guarding the entrance and entered the hideout with Shin at tail. The corridors were moist and hardly lit giving off a strange feeling of danger. The air was thick and also moist and it felt as if it was sticking to their lungs. But they were used to it by now. Tamotsu even felt nostalgic for this place.

"What now?" Shin asked as he continued carrying the unconscious girl. Tamotsu turned towards him and gave him a smirk.

"Now, she gets to meet Orochimaru-sama." Tamotsu said and turned ahead as he led the way to Orochimaru's quarters. He knew the path by heart and he'd be damned if he ever forgot it. He was loyal to Orochimaru and would even give his life for the said man; something that Shin never could understand and support. But Shin kept his mouth shut and didn't say a thing, pretending that Tamotsu's infatuation with Orochimaru was normal.

Finally they arrived at their destination, two stone snakes guarding the wooden door that separated them from Orochimaru's quarters. With a light knock, Tamotsu entered the room and bowed before Orochimaru who sat comfortably in his chair. Shin entered after Tamotsu, laid the unconscious Sakura on the floor and he too bowed to Orochimaru.

"Oh, isn't she beautiful?" Orochimaru drawled out as his eyes drank in her body and curves. His raspy tongue darted out of his mouth and slid across his lips, moistening them. "Well then, why isn't she awake yet?" He said, slightly annoyed.

"Orochimaru-sama, this kunoichi deemed more powerful then we thought so we had to use more force then intended and she ended up with a concussion." Tamotsu said.

"Ah, I knew she was perfect for the job." Orochimaru said with a smirk and turned towards Kabuto. "Perhaps you could wake her up? She has a meeting to attend to." Orochimaru said with his snake like lisping. Kabuto nodded and walked over the Sakura, who was lying on the floor, helplessly. He pressed his palms over her head and pushed a small amount of chakra through his hands. Indeed she had suffered a concussion but he had no plans what so ever to heal it completely. If Orochimaru wanted her for her medical skills, she would first have to prove to Kabuto that she was worthy. And besides, she might know a jutsu or two that might come in handy. '_I guess I'll play around with her later_' Kabuto thought and turned towards Orochimaru, pushing his thick rimmed glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"She is waking up." Kabuto announced after noticing that Sakura's eyes are fluttering beneath the lids.

"Ah excellent" Orochimaru said and leaned a bit in his chair, patiently waiting for the pink haired girl to wake up.

And she did wake up. Just seconds later her emerald eyes groggily opened as she welcomed the pain in her head. It took her couple of minutes for her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room and then she could see everything. From Kabuto who was leaning over her smirking darkly, to Orochimaru who seemed a bit too happy to see her. And a shiver worked its way up her spine. She tried to stand up but was pushed down to her knees by Kabuto. She whimpered as he hit a sore spot with his foot.

"What the fuck do you want Orochimaru?" Sakura spat as she glared at him through her pink bangs. Sakura was not a happy camper, seeing as she was kidnapped by some stupid sound nins, she fell unconscious 3 times, hadn't eaten anything in couple of days and she was standing in a room full of people that stared at her hungrily.

"Oh, come on now cherry blossom." Orochimaru stood up from his sit and walked over to Sakura. "Is that a way to greet your" she grabbed her chin in his calloused hand and brought his face closer to hers. "_Master_?" The way he emphasized the last word had her shivering inwardly but Sakura was a trained kunoichi and she would not show any emotion towards her captor, no matter how scary, despicable and utterly revolting he seemed to her.

She yanked her chin away from his hands and glared at his yellow, serpent like eyes; the defiance high in her eyes. "I don't have a master. Nor I could ever have."

This caused Orochimaru to chuckle. "Not yet you don't. But don't worry, you'll meet him soon enough. You probably have some catching up to do" He smiled at her and sat in his chair, watching the kunoichi's face contort into one of confusion. He knew that her head must be overflowing with question and seeing the confusion in her eyes amused him to no end.

"You still didn't answer my question. What the fuck do you want from me?"

"Well you see, that's for me to know and for you to find out." He smirked at her again and it made Sakura want to bash his head into the stone wall. She also knew that she wouldn't get a straight answer from him so she settled for that. However she growled lowly at him and fought against her restraints. "Well off you go now" He motioned to the two bulky guards "You have someone to meet" He smirked again and winked at her as she cringed. The two guards came from behind her and grabbed her arms.

"Hey, let me go. Let me go you, stupid, fat imbeciles!" She struggled as they dragged her away, but to no avail. "Let. Me. Go. NOW!" After a while, she made couple of calculations in he head and just went with them. '_I'll just wait for the right moment…and then I'll strike._' Sure she was tired but she was never too tired to try to run away. So she walked beside the two guards calmly and waited for her right moment to strike. The two bulky sound nins dragged her through the dimly lit corridors and brought her to a door. However this door was different then the other doors they had passed, Sakura noted. This one seemed nicer and more expensive. The wood was a dark mahogany and it seemed as if it was for someone with a higher status, someone like Orochimaru. Sakura mentally cringed at this and that was all it took for her to lung herself at one of the guards while the other one unlocked the door. She infused her bound hands with chakra and back handed him. He fell to the floor and held his probably broken jaw. Sakura saw this as another opening and kicked him in the stomach hard. She did a back hand flip –which was rather difficult with her hands being handcuffed- as the other guy made a move to grab her. She got into her defensive stance and infused her hand with chakra, ready to pummel the guy into the ground.

"Obey and you will not be hurt." The guy said as he got into his defensive stance, slowly.

Sakura tsked. "What's with you men lately, telling me to obey. I'm not going to obey cause you don't fucking own me. Now come on, are we gonna fight or what?" She smirked at the guy and infused her fists with even more chakra then before. The guy growled and lunged himself at her successfully managing to kick her in the ribs. However Sakura, before she fell to the ground, hit him with her chakra infused fist and sent him flying backwards.

'_Damn him. He got me good._' Sakura thought as she gasped from the pain. However she was still not ready to give up completely. She would not stay longer in that place. The same place where Sasuke had been. Her heart constricted painfully in her chest at the thought of Sasuke. The tears prickled in the corners of her eyes but she pushed them back in and focused on the task at hand. So with a whole new motivation, Sakura struggled to get up. Getting up from a horizontal position with bound hands, proved to be rather difficult. As she was attempting to get up the other guard came and kicked her in the stomach hard. He straddled her hips and pressed a kunai tightly to her neck. Sakura stopped fighting when she felt the kunai press into her neck and cut open the skin slightly. Her emerald eyes glared at the guy who was straddling her hips. She tried getting up a bit or even flipping him over in the best case but he just pushed the kunai more into her neck. His cold, brown eyes narrowed to slits, glaring at the pink haired girl beneath him through his thick, blond eyelashes.

"It's really not in your best interest to die." He growled.

"Well, it's not in your best interest to kill me." She spat back. He just raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm very well needed and if you kill me Orochimaru will have your head on a silver platter." She smirked at his snarl because he knew she was right. She was needed and Orochimaru would kill him if the kunoichi ceased to exist.

"Bitch" and he slapped her. He slapped her so hard, she felt the distinctive metallic taste of blood in her mouth. Slowly, painfully slowly she turned her head towards him and glared at him with all of the hate she could muster. If looks could kill, the guy would be 6 feet underground. "You can glare all you want. You can't touch me." He said as he stood up and pulled her along with him. He was right. Sakura couldn't even touch him seeing as her hands were bound and his kunai was still pressing into her neck. She cursed her luck. "Come on, move it" He yelled at her and pushed her inside the room. Somehow she managed to lose her footing and fell on the ground. "Fucking, idiot" she grumbled as she tried to stand up.

"I heard that" He said and slammed the door so hard it almost fell of the hinges. Sakura perked her ears up to hear if he would lock the door and when he didn't a small flame of hope lit up inside her. However not a second later, the door locked with a resonated 'click' and with that Sakura's flame of hope turned to ashes.

"UGH!" She groaned loudly and kicked at the air with her leg, angrily. '_Well at least it's_ _not a cell_' She thought as she looked around. Actually it was a really nice room. A king sized bed with white sheets and black pillows stood on the opposite wall of the door. On both sides of the bed there were two wooden nightstands. On the walls on the left and on the right of the door there were another two doors and lastly there was a desk with papers and couple of books scattered on top of it. Something about the room just screamed déjà vu to Sakura. Something felt so familiar yet it was the first time Sakura has ever seen it. And it kind of reminded her of, dare she say it Sasuke. '_Perhaps this was his room while he was staying with Orochimaru_' and just as she thought about being in the same room Sasuke had been in, a tear slid down her cheek. And that one was followed by thousands of others.

2 years had passed since they found out that Sasuke was dead and she still couldn't get over his death and move on. So many sleepless nights she had wandered around the village, shedding tears on the same bench he had left her on. So many times when she did get a little sleep, she dreamt about his beautiful face that she would never get to see. She could almost hear her heart breaking…again.

After what felt like hours of crying, she wiped the tears from her face and snuggled herself in the corner of the room and waited for what ever destiny awaited her. Soon, she would plan her escape and go back to Konoha.

Her head still hurt from the concussion. Hadn't her chakra been depleted she would have taken care of it easily but she had to fight those stupid guards and spend all of her chakra-no matter how little she had. '_Why me Kami-sama? And why here of all places?_' She thought sadly as she stared at the white ceiling.

As the time passed by slowly she fell asleep on the hard floor only to be woken up with loud voices coming from the other side of the door. "Great, here they come" She mumbled sarcastically to no one in particular and lazily opened her emerald eyes. She yawned and sat on her butt with her knees bent. She focused on the voices on the other side of the door but she could not make out what they were saying. Then that all too familiar sound of the door unlocking was heard and she turned her head to the opposite side, waiting in disgust to see whom she presumed to be her "master". '_As if I can have a master. Whoever this is, he's going down and I'm going out_' She thought and waited for the door to open. And it did open, leaving her wondering who it was that was walking so fluidly and stealthily. '_Don't give in Sakura. The curiosity killed the cat_' She wanted so badly to turn around and glare at the person who entered and closed the door shut with a loud slam that almost had her jump in surprise. Death glare at him until he died. Sighing inwardly, for having to lose her inner battle, Sakura turned around and at same time she turned around she heard the person speak.

"Get up." And at that moment Sakura's heart stopped beating, her lungs almost gave out on her and her beautiful emerald eyes widened as she stared at the onyx eyes she never thought she would see ever again. In all of his glory-in front of Sakura-stood none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered as she stared wide eyed at what she presumed to be a ghost. "Sasuke-kun you're alive." Sasuke wore his emotionless mask but nevertheless raised a perfectly shaped black eyebrow. He crossed his arms and stared blankly at her. With tears of joy running down her face, Sakura couldn't take it any longer. So she stumbled to get up and ran at Sasuke in the hopes of giving him a hug. But no such thing happened as Sasuke roughly pushed her to the wall, his elbow pushing just below her chin and his eyes blazing with the three overlapping ellipses that represented Sasuke's mangekyo sharingan. Her eyes went-if possible- even wider at this as she stared at Sasuke's eyes. The look that Sasuke gave her, as if she was an enemy sent shivers down her spine and made her breath hitch in her throat.

"Don't confuse yourself _Haruno_" Sasuke said in his monotone voice. "I'm not your teammate anymore. From now on you'll do as I say."

Sakura could not believe her ears. The tears ran down her cheeks as she searched for a sign that maybe he didn't really mean what he said. But she found none that indicated such thing.

She found out that he was alive after all, after 2 years of mourning and grieving and that is the only thing he has to say? He didn't even give her a chance to let the information sink into her brain because it all seemed surreal. If she could she would stab herself in the hand with a kunai if that was what it took to understand that this wasn't a dream.

"Why?"

"Because I'm your master while you're here."

"I have no master." At that his chakra spiked up and Sakura's mouth fell open as she remember the first rule when dealing with an Uchiha _"Never look into their eyes"_.

"Now you do." He said and watched emotionlessly as she fell to the ground unconscious.

* * *

**So that was the second chapter of Blink and I'm gone and I have to say I'm not proud of the outcome. But here it is -.- **

**Please Read, Review and Enjoy. **

**Love, MyAmaranthGrin :) **


	3. Truth unveiled

**A/N: The part where Sasuke enters the room and talks to Sakura read it with this song** h t tp:/w ww.y o tu be. c o m /watch?v=9pOtOBnprWo **You'll get a whole new experience believe me ;)**

**Chapter 3: Truth unveiled  
**

"_I have no master." At that his chakra spiked up and Sakura's mouth fell open as she remembered the first rule when dealing with an Uchiha _"Never look into their eyes".

"_Now you do." He said and watched emotionlessly as she fell to the ground unconscious_.

Sakura's emerald eyes slowly fluttered open and were met with darkness. Her head was aching and she presumed that it was due to the concussion she had suffered when she fought that idiot Tamotsu. She couldn't help but growl for there was nothing that she would want more then to pummel his face into the ground. Her head started pounding again and instinctively she tried to raise her hand to heal her concussion but she found out that she couldn't. Her hands had been chained to the wall behind her. She gathered what little chakra she had and tried to break the chains but a searing pain went from her wrists all the way up to her heart. She doubled over in pain, gasping for breath. She tried again, this time with a little more chakra but the pain was even bigger than before bringing tears to her eyes. She sighed and thought about another plan.

As she sat there in the dark, thinking of an escape plan, images from before flooded into her mind. '_Oh Kami-sami, Sasuke-kun is actually alive._' Her heart filled with both happiness and sorrow as the realization settled in. Happiness because he was alive and sorrow because of the way he reacted to her. Her mind was a big turmoil of mixed emotions and simple thoughts that she felt like her head was about to explode. The emotions got the best of her as she cracked down in tears. Her heart constricted painfully at the thought of Sasuke pushing her away even after 4 years. For 4 years she had lived in despair and sadness. She was like a shell, acting the way everybody expected her to. She was smiling when she was Naruto, she kicking ass when she was with Tenten, she was strategic when she was with Shikamaru, she was all business when she was with Tsunade and so on and so on making everybody think that she had finally let the past go and once and for all settled down peacefully. If only they knew that her heart and soul were tormented with each passing day; that she was just a big turmoil of emotions that fell on her back as a burden that was going to break her someday sure enough. Her emerald eyes filled with tears once again, pushing her back to the floor. Being powerless was exactly how she felt at that moment and it was something she didn't like at all. She felt like she wasn't able to even get up from the floor let alone meet Sasuke again and make and escape plan. However, still in the back of her mind she still had a little hope. Hope that she might at least change Sasuke's opinion about coming back now that she knows he's alive. That tiny little hope was what gave her the power to get up from the floor, wipe her tears and try to break the chains once more.

She closed her eyes and focused her chakra into her hands. The searing pain began to spread from her wrists upwards to her heart but she clenched her teeth and bit back the pain as she continued to focus her chakra to her hands. She felt the skin on her hands start to break but she didn't falter a bit. A long groan escaped her mouth through her clenched teeth as the pain got even worse. Her chakra was almost depleted and she couldn't stand the pain anymore so she stopped immediately and fell to the floor. Panting hard, Sakura just stared blankly at the dark walls. She soon started feeling fatigued due to her chakra depletion but she didn't let the unconsciousness welcome her this time. As she sat there, staring at walls, she heard a shuffle of feet in front of the door. The door opened and light entered into the room, illuminating everything. At first, the light was too much for Sakura's eyes, so she squinted them and waited for the person who entered to speak. The figure came closer to Sakura and she could see clearly that it was Sasuke who had entered the room. Her heart made a big leap and began to beat in a painfully fast rhythm upon seeing his emotionless face. Sakura noted how changed Sasuke was. His hair was longer but was still the same shiny, raven color. His attire has changed to a white shirt opened in the front showing of his pale muscular body, black pants and a purple sash around his hips where his katana was nested comfortably. All in all he was changed; a lot.

"You weren't trying to break the chains were you?" Sasuke said in a mocking kind of tone, implying that it was a foolish thing to do. Sakura ignored his question and stared in his eyes.

"Sasuke-kun" Sakura almost whispered. "Why are you doing this? Please, just let me go and let's go together back to Konoha. Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and I will do everything we can to protect you and everything will go back to normal. You can-" Sakura stopped speaking as Sasuke unsheathed his katana and pointed it at her neck.

"Enough. I will never return to Konoha and nothing can ever be like it was. You and Naruto are foolish enough to continue with that false hope of me returning back to the village. It's never going to happen so deal with it. You are only my acquaintance and so is Naruto. There is nothing left for me in Konoha because I made sure to severe all of my bonds years ago."

Sakura couldn't believe her ears. The way he said it was nonchalant and so cold that her eyes began to sting with unshed tears.

"How? How can you say that we're only your acquaintances?" At this point Sakura pushed herself of the ground and stood at his eye level. "You were our family. You were like a brother to Naruto. I loved you. You left all of that just so you could seek power and revenge. You killed Itachi. You had your revenge. So return to the village. You're already as powerful as you can be and you fulfilled your goal. It's all over."

"Stop pretending like you know what's going inside my head. You have no idea what it's like to have your parents murdered, your whole clan betrayed by your own blood. You have no idea what it's like to lose the people you love the most."

"You have no idea about anything." Sakura screamed with the tears falling freely down her face. "My parents were also killed in front of my eyes. Couple of days after you left there was an attack against Konoha and my parents were killed. They were killed while I was hiding under the bed because I couldn't do anything to save them. I too wanted to become stronger and I trained everyday and now I'm stronger than I've ever been. Naruto also trained with Jiraiya for 2 and a half years and his power even surpasses yours. You could have achieved power on the same way. You could have become stronger with us by your side. And don't tell me about not knowing what it's like to lose someone I love cause I not only lost my parents but I…" She looked up and this eyes and whispered. "I lost you too." Sasuke just stared at her with an expressionless face, showing no emotion whatsoever.

"You're weak." He stated. "You're both weak. You know nothing about being powerful and the idiot could never be stronger than me." He pressed his sword a little bit more into her neck and watched as her eyes widened and blood trickled down her neck. Sakura only cast her gaze downwards.

"You're right. I've always been weak. But no matter how much you deny it, you're not stronger than Naruto. He has friends, he has bonds that make him stronger and he achieved his power by doing and being good." The tears continued to fall down her face but she refused to look at Sasuke's emotionless face. It hurt her too much to hear him speak to her like that; to see that he hasn't changed for the better but for the worst.

"Stop trying to get into my head. It's not going to happen." He stated plainly and put his katana back to its sheath. "Now come on, Orochimaru wants to see you." He did couple of hand seals and the chain fell down to the ground. He grabbed the other end and wrapped it around his arm and tugged on it, motioning for Sakura to stand up. With her hands, chained behind her back she had a little trouble getting up but she managed to get up and walked silently towards the door. Sasuke walked calmly behind her, every now and then giving her the directions where she was supposed to go. As they walked towards Orochimaru's quarters, something caught Sasuke's attention. He looked at the chain shackles that were around Sakura's wrists and noticed that there was a crack on each side. His eyes slightly widened as the realization hit him. Sakura was so close to breaking the shackles even though he had put an almost impossible to break jutsu. '_I'm stronger than I've ever been' _Sakura's voice rang in his head. '_Just how strong has she become? If she's this strong then I wonder how strong Naruto really is?_' Sasuke thought for a moment. Sakura really had changed and not only physically. His thought was interrupted when Sakura stopped and asked where to go next.

"We're here." He announced and led her through the door. Sound nins where practically infiltrating the room making Sakura really wary. Orochimaru was sitting in the very center of the room with Kabuto, his faithful assistant by his side. Orochimaru scanned Sakura from head to toe with his yellow, snake like eyes and moistened his lips with his tongue.

"You're even more beautiful than yesterday, cherry blossom." He lisped and smiled at her a little too kindly. "Now, let's go straight to business shall we? Since you've meet your new master, he will have to present his rules to you. You will be required to help Kabuto in the infirmary if need be since we heard you surpassed my darling friend Tsunade and became Konoha's most renowned medic nin. In return you will get the freedom to roam around the hideout. Is this alright with you?" Orochimaru asked Sakura who seemed deep in thought. When she didn't answer, Sasuke yanked the chain and brought her back from her reverie.

"As you say." She said simply, looked at Sasuke sadly then cast her gaze downwards again. Orochimaru was pleased with how easily the cherry blossom was broken and bent under his will.

"Kabuto, please tend to her concussion. I figure she still hasn't healed it herself." The man in question nodded and moved near her, placing his hands on her head. A green light began to emit from his hands and her concussion was soon healed.

"It's done, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto said as he resumed his place next to Orochimaru who clasped his hands in delight.

"Ah, splendid. Sasuke, you may take her back to your room." Sasuke nodded and yanked Sakura out of the room. He noticed that she was silent and really sad but he couldn't care less. '_She's still that weakling that she used to be._' He commented in his head and continued to yank her to his room. Once they arrived, he pushed her inside the room and undid the chains. As he did she scooted closer to the wall and massaged her bloody and aching wrists, not even daring herself to look him in the eyes.

"You will be in charge of cleaning around the room and keeping track of my weapons being sharp. You must ask me before exiting the room. In the morning if I'm not here wait for someone to come and take you to the kitchen to get something to eat. Do not, roam the halls unattended cause I won't be responsible for what happens to you. Am I making myself clear?" Sasuke asked Sakura who just stared at the floor and idly massaged her hands. Angry that she wasn't answering him, he went by her side, grabbed her chin and yanked it up. "I said am I making myself clear?" His now blood red eyes were boring into her emerald ones. She in return glared at him and yanked her chin out of his grasp.

"Yes, perfectly clear." Deep inside she felt something she had never felt for Sasuke before; disgust. She pushed it away though as a momentary thing due to the situation but it was still there.

"Hn, foolish weakling." Sasuke commented before leaving the room. At that moment Sakura decided, she was going to escape this place and never search for Sasuke again because to her…he was a lost cause.

-A week later-

A week had passed and Sakura still couldn't find her open chance to escape. She was constantly in the room, boring herself out of her mind. Sasuke's room wasn't even that filthy to begin with so she really didn't have that much work to do around the room. She sharpened his tools every once in a while and sometimes out of boredom and when Sasuke wasn't around she balanced herself on the tip of the kunai. In the mornings and at night she went to the infirmary to help Kabuto with the injured sound nins. Had she not like healing and helping people, she would have never even showed her face in the infirmary because Kabuto was making her uncomfortable. He always found excuses to touch her and be near her and more often he leered at her. She was doing everything in her power to control her temper and not pummel his face into the ground. She liked being alone in the room and she was grateful that Sasuke spend most of his days on the training grounds. In the little time he was in the room with her, she tried to talk to him but he would either ignore her completely or dismiss her with his trademark 'hn'. His behavior really hurt her because even though she hated to admit it she was still helplessly in love with him. And when she saw him after so long, all of her buried feelings came to the surface.

On the 8th day of her stay at Orochimaru's hideout, she couldn't take it anymore and things went downhill. Sasuke had just returned from the training grounds and found out that Sakura wasn't in his room. He was so angry, he immediately grabbed his katana and went looking for her. '_What an annoying girl!_' He thought as he searched everywhere for her. Willing himself to calm down, he came to a halt and closed his eyes, searching for her chakra. That beautiful and pure chakra she had was practically bouncing off the walls, giving Sasuke the lead that she was in the infirmary. As he came closer he could hear her laughing and for a moment, just for a brief moment it reminded him of the old, happy days with team 7. He pushed the memory to the darkest corners of his mind and went inside. He saw Sakura sitting on the bed next to a little girl who had her arm and leg in a cast.

"Sakura, may I speak to you. Outside." As he said the last part his eyes switched immediately to his sharingan, notifying Sakura that he was furious. Sakura didn't feel scared at all. She turned towards the little girl who was seemingly afraid and gave her a squeeze on her good hand.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. See you tomorrow." She said to the little girl, smiled reassuringly and exited the infirmary, waiting patiently for Sasuke to come out. And as he did come out, he grabbed her by the neck and pushed her into the wall.

"Would you please remind me when have I allowed you to roam freely in the corridors?" He growled at her.

"Oh, please like I need to ask you for anything. You don't even know I'm alive, don't even care and now all of a sudden you acknowledge my existence? Get real." Sakura said defiantly while glaring at him. She had enough of him. Enough of his conceited, egoistical, evil, icy self. It was time to give him a piece of her mind.

Sasuke in return, had it with her careless behavior. He tightened his hold on her neck and glared at her. "As a matter of fact yes you do need to ask me and just because I've decided not to acknowledge your petty and annoying existence doesn't mean that I don't keep an eye on what you're doing. Now tell me, what's stopping me from killing you here on the spot?"

"Go on then. Kill me." She taunted. "Kill me and show me exactly what you are; a cold blooded murderer. Just. Like. Your. Brother!" She said through clenched teeth. She hit the wrong buttons though because Sasuke got even angrier. His eyes switched to his mangekyo sharingan and his lip turned into a vicious snarl. He let out a growl and tightened his hold on her even more. Sakura on the other hand was scared cause she was sure she was going to die. It was her second time facing Sasuke's terrifying yet beautiful mangekyo sharingan and she wasn't sure if she was getting another chance to see it. In her head she mentally said goodbye to everyone and she prayed that death would consume her faster. Before she even had the time to blink Sasuke had her inside his most powerful genjutsu, the tsukuyomi and watched as her eyes widened in shock before closing and slipping into unconsciousness.

**A/N: I hope you like it. Read, Review and enjoy.**


	4. Inside the Tsukuyomi

Chapter 4: Inside the Tsukuyomi

_Everything was black and red. Sakura found herself staring at a younger version of herself crying. She was lying on the doorsteps of her own home, curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out. _'No, No, No! Anything but that. Anything!' _Sakura thought in horror as she watched the memory unravel in front of her eyes. The sight of her broken, younger self was excruciating. The younger version screamed while looking up at the sky, tears streaming down her face. Another agonizing scream filled the air of the silent Konoha, making the older Sakura cringe and turn her head to the side. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she tried to find a way to dispel his Tsukuyomi. Suddenly the scene changed. She was tied to a chair in a dark room. Kakashi and Naruto came out of nowhere. _

_Her eyes widened as she saw the disapproving look they were giving her. "K-Kakashi-sensei? Naruto?" They ignored her as they advanced towards her. _

"_You bitch." Kakashi stated lowly. "You pushed Sasuke away. You made him run into the arms of Orochimaru." _

"_No, no! That's not true Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura tried reasoning with him but to no avail. "Naruto, please tell him that it's not true." She pleaded Naruto, as he stood there and gave her a disapproving look as well. _

"_He's right. You're a failure. You're the one to blame for Sasuke leaving. You're the one to blame for Sasuke death!" He yelled at her. The sight of both Naruto and Kakashi being like that ripped her heart to shreds even though she knew it was Sasuke's evil game. _

"_But he's alive!" Sakura yelled back. She pushed back the tears that were threatening to fall and decided to just go with the flow and heed them no attention. She knew it wasn't true anyway. _

"_Hello daughter." Sakura's head snapped up at the voice and all those tears that were threatening to fall, streamed down her face as she looked into her mother's eyes. _

"_Mom?" From behind her mother, out of the shadows stepped out a man with silver hair. "Daddy?" She started sobbing as they approached her too. She wanted to break free and just run towards them and embrace them. _

"_That's right it's us. The same parents you were unable to save. The same parents you left to die while you cowardly hid under the bed." _

_Sakura shook her head and sobbed even harder. "No…T-that's, n-n…" She broke down after that and started crying even more. _

"_It's true. You're weak. You were always weak and you will always be weak." Her father said and they all started laughing maniacally. Sakura could only stare at them and continue to sob, as she felt her heart break even more. In her mind all she could do was curse Sasuke to hell and back. She felt like her soul hurt, like her heart hurt. The scenes kept changing from bad to worse as she cried her eyes out and it went on and on for 72 hours. _

Sasuke rarely felt bad about anything he did. He almost never regretted doing anything. He was one of those people he live by the quote "Don't ever regret anything that made you happy." However, even though he would never admit that to a single soul, he did feel a little bit bad for what he did to Sakura. 72 hours did seem a little long to him and the things he did to her in his Tsukuyomi. No wonder the girl hadn't woken up for a week. At times his regret went so far to even make him feel scared about the kunoichi's life. That, only happened for a mere second and then it would revert back to indifference but for that small second it still annoyed him.

The eighth day after the Tsukuyomi, Sakura still hadn't woken up. She was lying down on the futon covered with a thin blanket, twitching and moaning from time to time. It had been the same for days and Sasuke really began to rethink his previous decision, maybe 72 hours were too long. However, if she were to prove to him that she was strong she should be able to survive that. But then again, she could have a permanent mental trauma and 72 hours _was _a long torture.

Sasuke groaned and shook his head. He had been thinking about that for too long. Why would he even care if Sakura was rendered unable to fight? It was his new goal after all, to destroy all Konoha. Why not start with Sakura? If he were to kill her, it would be a great loss to Konoha, seeing as she was their best medic after Tsunade. Yet somehow, he convinced himself that it was better to torture her than to kill. And not because he couldn't bring himself to kill her. He groaned again. Since the day, they brought her his life has turned upside down and only 2 weeks had passed.

"S-Sasuke-kun…" Sakura's whisper brought him back from his reverie. He turned to look at the kunoichi in question and walked over to her. He stood above her and watched as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her emerald eyes slowly began to appear from behind her lids. Suddenly she sat upright and screamed. "No!"

Sasuke was caught off guard as he leaped backwards and grabbed the hilt of his katana. He watched emotionlessly as Sakura panted loudly and stared in front of herself. Painfully, slowly she looked around the room and finally rested her eyes on him. Her eyes narrowed at him as she suddenly leaped towards him, catching him of guard and pinned him on the wall. "You!" She was shaking with both anger and fatigue. "You bastard! How could you do that to me? How could you!" She screamed at him, barely holding her body upright.

Sasuke decided that he would let her steam off a bit while he estimated the damage. To his surprise Sakura didn't seem to show any signs of mental trauma. That was good, he decided. Feeling like he gave her enough time to steam off, he switched their position and had her pinned on the wall instead with his hand holding her throat and the other holding the katana pointed at her.

"Don't cross the line." He said dangerously.

"You bastard. How could you do that to me of all people? How could you!" She screamed again in his face, while just smirked arrogantly at her.

"Why should I spare _you _off all people?" He said as he stared deep into her eyes, daring her to defy him. She in return only smiled, which shocked him.

"You're right. You shouldn't spare me." Her eyes held more determination then ever. "Kill me, now." She whispered, still keeping that smile plastered to her face.

"Since you seem so inclined on the idea that I kill, maybe I should making you wish come true." He said as he tightened his hold on her neck. However, he saw something in her eyes, something that seemed more like giving up. That fact unnerved him and just because of that he didn't want to kill her. Convincing himself that he was doing it just because of his stubbornness not to fulfill her wish, he released her throat and stepped away from her. He watched her as she slowly slid down to the ground, broken.

"You're too keen on dying just because of that I will keep you alive for as long as I can."

Sakura just stared at the ground, feeling broken and defeated. Images from his Tsukuyomi, still replayed in her mind. Naruto, Kakashi, her parents. It all seemed real. A little too real. She had absolutely no idea how long she had been there but she lost absolutely every hope of getting out of that place. She mentally cursed herself for giving up so easily but she just couldn't take it.

Everything was just so unbelievable. Sasuke being alive was the cherry on top of the ice-cream and it was an ice-cream she didn't really want to taste. Not that she didn't appreciate the fact that Sasuke was alive cause she wouldn't have it any other way but it was better off if he was alive and she was far, far away from him. Better to be in Konoha knowing that Sasuke was alive and still keep that perfect image she had about him and that gleam of hope that he would someday return. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't felt Sasuke leave the room. At some point, tears had started to run down her cheeks. She was tired of it. She was tired of everything, and she had to getaway fast.

She strained to get up and caught herself on the wall just in time. Slowly, she moved her legs feebly towards the door. Her eyes drooped down as she still felt the fatigue wash over her but she kept on walking towards the door. She reached the door and was surprised to see it open. '_Thank you Sasuke_' She thought sarcastically and left that godforsaken room. Somehow, the corridors seemed different to Sakura. They seemed longer and bigger but she blamed it on the fatigue. She continued walking, catching herself on the walls for support. She didn't even stop to think how foolish her plan was. Her chakra was depleted due to the poor nutrition her body had so if it came to fighting, she would be defenseless. Not to mention that the place was crawling with sound-nins and they were surely not going to allow her to leave the place just like that. And for last, her luck was zero to none so she was probably going to ran into Sasuke and she did _not _want a repeat of what happened the last time he caught her. Without even taking these things into consideration, she continued forward almost blindly.

For a short moment she thought that she had just enough luck to escape from that god forsaken place. A small, almost invisible smile appeared on her face, as she stared at the door that parted her from freedom. Her luck however was rather short lived seeing as Kabuto appeared in front of the door out of nowhere. Sakura's emerald eyes widened in shock but then narrowed down at that white haired shinobi.

"Step away from the door Kabuto" Sakura warned dangerously. She knew that she didn't have enough chakra or energy for that matter to fight him off, but she still wouldn't go down without a fight.

The white haired man snickered at her, took his glasses off and wiped them off with the ends of his shirt. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Sakura" he said as he put his glasses back on and crossed his hands.

A vein popped in Sakura's head. "Step. Away. From. The. Fucking. Door. Kabuto!" She said through her clenched teeth.

"I said I can't do that, Sakura-_chan!_" He said, making Sakura cringe at the suffix. Slowly he started walking towards her. Sakura glared at him through her narrowed eyes and immediately got into a fighting stance. When he came closer to her, Sakura lunged herself at him and infused her fist with what little chakra she had left in her. Her hand connected with the wall, leaving a small indent as Kabuto moved his head out of the way. Before Sakura even had time to react he delivered a punch to her cheek bone and made her fall to the ground. Shaking her head as if to shake the pain away, Sakura pushed herself off the ground and got into the same defensive position. Kabuto only smirked and ran towards her again. This time he tried to punch her again but she barely dodged it and kicked him in the stomach instead. He backed away and doubled over in pain but smirked nevertheless. Sakura lunged herself at him again but this time Kabuto was quicker as he kicked her side and sent her to the ground. She gasped for breath as her ribs began to pressure her lungs, making her unable to breathe normally. She didn't even notice Kabuto who lurked towards her slowly. He straddled her hips and when she started to fight him off he captured her hands above her head. "Now be nice, Sakura-chan! I just want to play with you!"

"No. Get away from me! Don't!" Sakura screamed at him and tried to push him off of her but to no avail. She had exceeded her limit. The tsukuyomi , then attacking Sasuke, trying to escape and then the fight with Kabuto; all of that wore her out and now was taking it's toll on her. Still, she didn't let herself get discouraged by that as she continued to struggle. Kabuto released her hands to perform some seals. "Kanashibari no Jutsu" Sakura tried to move her hands but they felt like they were paralyzed. She tried moving her legs too but to no avail, they were paralyzed as well.

"Please don't do this Kabuto!" Sakura pleaded as his hands started to roam over her body hungrily. His eyes glinted with mischief and lust underneath his glasses. He lowered his peeling lips onto her neck and slowly sucked on it. Tears formed into Sakura's eyes as se she lied on the cold stone floor, unable to defend herself. "P-Please, don't do this K-Kabuto." She tried pleading one more time.

"Oh, you're so perfect Cherry blossom. You're perfect." Kabuto spoke with a desire filled voice as his lust glazed eyes roamed over her curvy body. He took out a kunai and slashed her shirt in half, exposing her sports bra to Kabuto's naked eyes. As soon as his hand came into contact with her breast, Sakura screamed in horror, closed her eyes and turned her head to the other side. "You know you're enjoying this. Don't deny it." Kabuto whispered in her ear before lowering his lips to her neck once more while his other hand tended to her breast. Sakura felt absolutely disgusted. She couldn't even believe this was happening to her, and it was all because of Sasuke. It was all because of him.

Slowly she opened her tear filled eyes and stared at the ground emotionlessly. Her eyes though caught a sight of something. At first she strained her eyes to see but when it came clearer, the tears began to fall even more. There in the shadows stood none other than Sasuke Uchiha, his eyes gleaming with the prominent red color of the Sharingan. He just stood there and watched as Sakura was about to get raped. That alone, felt like a knife stabbed in the back to Sakura. Paralyzed, she just stared blankly at Sasuke and didn't bother to hide the tears that streamed down her face. 'I loved you' Sakura mouthed the words to him; before she closed her tear filled eyes and lowered her head in expectation of what was about to happen to her. From that moment, Sakura decided, Sasuke was as good as dead to her.

**A/N: Well that's the 4****th**** chapter of "Blink and I'm gone." Please review so I know if you like the story or not cause I've been thinking about discontinuing it. I got a lot of author alerts and story subscriptions for which I'm really grateful but I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review with your opinion so I know if you guys like the story or if you think something should be changed. **

**Thank you! MyAmaranthGrin loves you! **


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